First Game Since 3rd Edition

[Korloth Darkwolf]

Well tonight I had my first game since 3rd Edition (long story involving a fair amount of moving, deaths, loss of gaming groups etc) and got pretty much cut down to man. So I'm going to post a small game report and see if anyone can offer any advice.

 

The game was a fairly large one (approx 4500 points a side). My side was my DC list, a Nids list (including Swarmlord, Warriors, many gaunts and a brood of genestealers), plus an ork list. The opposition was a mix of Blood Angels and Eldar.

 

The opposition were defending a bastion with gate that occupied one half of their deployment zone and a tower in the other half. We deployed first. The orks deployed to take the tower, the nids were in the center and I was given the space in front of the bastion (first bad move on my sides part!). The opposition deployed completely inside the bastion with only a few in actual sight.

 

Due to this the game became a bit awkward. The orks didn't have a single enemy unit on their side of the table so spent the whole game running towards the bastion. They lost no models nor killed any so weren't really affecting anything in the game so I'll leave them out of the report from now on.

 

The Eldar pretty much centred on the Nids so that left the Blood Angels centred on my DC.

 

My List

Astorath + 9DC and JP

6 DC in TLLC Razorback

10 DC in Rhino

10 DC in Rhino

DC Dread in Pod

 

Deployment

 

I deployed Astorath and the JP DC behind some ruins to cut down line of sight to the Dark Reapers on the bastion wall. My Razorback deployed next to the ruins in sight of the closed Bastion gate and able to fire upon anything on the wall. The Rhinos were either side of these. My tactics (such as they were) were going to be to drop in behind the wall, try to hold the gate (open) and allow the rest to pile in and mop up. The Nids deployed to my right in the centre.

 

After Deployment:

 

Astorath caused every single Blood Angel unit on the opposition to succumb to the Red Thirst. Also their Dante subjected Astorath to the effects of his Mask.

The opposition got to go first.

 

Turn One - Eldar, Blood Angels

The oppositions DC squad (5 men plus Reclusiarch with JP's) hopped over the wall towards my DC. Nothing else moved.

A tactical combat squad rapid fired at the nearest gaunt unit, no kills. The dark reapers stationed on the bastion gate fired (through the window!) of the ruins at my JP DC though no wounds were taken. Another combat squad fired the tower lascannon and the units missile launcher at the swarmlord and it's guards taking out one guard.

No assaults

 

Turn One - DC, Nids

My Drop pod was forced to deploy outside the bastion. I wanted to deploy behind the vindicator sat behind the closed bastion gate and hit it with the meltagun but was told that because there was not space for the pod to sit on the table with its doors open (there would with it's door shut) I had to deploy outside the bastion. The opposition had deployed to fill the bastion in order to stop any deep strike into the bastion using this method.

So my pod landed outside the wall, scattered a little nearer and out got the DC dread. My Razorback and both Rhinos moved forward 6" and Astorath's squad hopped over the ruins into assault range of the other side's DC.

The Nids all moved towards the corner tower of the bastion.

 

I fired the Razorback's TLLC at the wall (it was decided the bastion wall sections were AV13 and 2 struture points) in an effort to breach it and missed. With nothing in sight the DC dread also fired at the wall and missed. Astorath and his unit fired at the opposition DC and missed. The storm bolters on both Rhino's hit the same DC squad but failed to wound. Not a good round.

The Nids concentrated all fire at the corner tower, and units on it, and failed utterly to make any damage at all.

 

I assaulted the other sides' DC with Astorath and after some pretty shocking dice rolls I lost Astorath and two DC marines, killing two in reply.

 

Turn Two - Eldar, Blood Angels

The bastion doors were opened. Three 5 man BA assault squads, Dante with a 6 man SG and a Priest hopped over the wall. No Eldar movement apart from the fire prisms and falcons shuffling around inside the bastion.

 

The Dark Reapers fired on a gaunt unit, killing a couple. One of the tower lascannons fired at the Razorback, immobilizing it, while the other hit the right hand Rhino and destroyed the Stormbolter. One of the 5 man Assault squads hit the right hand Rhino with an infernus pistol, popping it.

The Vindicator behind the bastion doors fired on the gaunts and Tyranid warriors that were moving up behind my Rhino's killing a few gaunts and wounding several warriors.

 

No assaults as the units were out of range (just). The combat between my DC and their DC resulted in only their Reclusiarch left standing.

 

Turn Two - DC, Nids

I deployed all the DC from the Rhinos and Razorback and moved them towards the BA. The Nids moved towards the corner tower and the gaunts and Warriors behind my tanks moved towards the Reclusiarch. A 16 strong genestealer unit with Broodlord entered the game inside the bastion and moved towards the two dire Avenger units.

 

I decided to rapid fire my bolter wielding DC from the left hand Rhino at the nearest 5 man Assualt Squad (with a view to Assaulting as I was in range) I failed to kill any. I did the same with the right hand DC squad and managed to knock down one. The 6 man team from the razorback has only Dante and his SG in it's sights, but again failed to do anything of merit.

The TLLC and DC Dread meltagun managed to bring down a section of wall, killing two of the combat squad on it, however this opened up a line of sight for the two fire prisms and falcons onto the Nids and my Dreadnought.

 

Assault phase was a mixed bag. The gaunts moving around the Rhinos charged the single reclusiarch and managed to not die. The left hand DC squad charged the 5 man Assault squad and killed three, losing three in reply. The centre 6 man unit assualted Dante and his SG and were wiped out without harming anything. The right hand DC squad charged another 5 man Assault squad and wiped it out without loss (what was to be the only item of merit for the day!)

 

Turn Three - Eldar, BA

Dante and his SG jumped over the wrecked Rhino and immobilised Razorback and an Avatar stormed out of the bastion and made to charge the left hand DC squad.

 

A barrage of fire from the prisms, the vinidicator and the falcons resulted in the DC dread, stormlord and a large number of gaunts and warriors leaving the table. The dark reapers managed to take out 6 of the right hand DC unit.

 

In the assault phase the Avatar charged and wiped out the remains of the left hand DC unit, Dante and the Reclusiarch died to the Warriors but couldn't kill off the SG unit.

 

At this time the game had to finish (due to time constraints on the venue) but it was not looking good.

 

4 DC and a rhino, a couple of warriors and a load of gaunts were left up against 2 fire prism, 2 falcons, a vindicator, a HB razorback and sternguard unit, 5 man tac squad, a dire avenger squad and an Avatar, plus the remains of the Assault squads (5 men).

 

The orks were unharmed but would have needed a turn or two to get into a decent position and in that time the Eldar would have taken out a fair amount of them.

 

 

So my first game in over a decade was an abysmal failure. I feel I was up against it with a DC list in this scenario and its not a fair representation of what the list plays like so I'll stick with it for a while.

 

I hope you can follow the report (if not please suggest how to improve it) and can offer me any advice. I will be evolving the list but I only had these models assembled and ready. Anything else will need purchasing before I can field it.

 

Look forward to your responses

[JamesI]

Welcome to the modern Blood Angels!

 

Apoc and team games are bad choices to a player who hasn't played in so long.

 

For now, all I can advise is to keep practicing, but start out with some smaller games.

[Aeterni]

Welcome to the modern Blood Angels!

 

Apoc and team games are bad choices to a player who hasn't played in so long.

 

For now, all I can advise is to keep practicing, but start out with some smaller games.

 

yea, start with 1-2k games first. Don't start with Apoc as the game takes on a whole new level.

[SamaNagol]

As above. Play some normal 1 on 1 games first.

[Korloth Darkwolf]

The large game was the decision of the host. Normally there would be several smaller 1500pt games but a few of the members had not turned up so to get everyone playing in the time available (there was an odd number) the larger game was used.

 

I know I'll gain more from the one on one games but it was good to get the game in.

 

My two biggest issues were the lack of heavy weapons and that my DC's combat advantages were effectively nullified by the other sides BA (having succumbed to the red thirst).

 

Also I had some really awful dice rolls. 20 bolter shots at a 5 man assault squad failed to take down a single model.

[SamaNagol]

Personally I would be looking to fit in some elite Chaplains into my list. At least 2. They make your DC actually kill things on the charge.

[Leonaides]

short and sweet answer? Play one more game with all those death co to get it out of your system, then dont take more than 5 or 6 for 6 months. Just because you can take that many doesnt make it a good idea. 1 heavy weapon in 1500pts is rather low, added to having to deal with an av13 wall with 2 structure points- should have been an av14 but no structure points for fairness in my opinion. Having all those dc cuts into your body count, and your tactical flexibility- you have to charge to make them worthwhile, but there are many ways to prevent you from being able to charge. But, that aside, welcome back to the fold and i hope future battles go better for you.

[Korloth Darkwolf]

short and sweet answer? Play one more game with all those death co to get it out of your system, then dont take more than 5 or 6 for 6 months. Just because you can take that many doesnt make it a good idea. 1 heavy weapon in 1500pts is rather low, added to having to deal with an av13 wall with 2 structure points- should have been an av14 but no structure points for fairness in my opinion. Having all those dc cuts into your body count, and your tactical flexibility- you have to charge to make them worthwhile, but there are many ways to prevent you from being able to charge. But, that aside, welcome back to the fold and i hope future battles go better for you.

 

I've never played Blood Angels (was always a Dark Angels player before) but always wanted to have both sides of the "Angels of Death". I know that I need more games but its fairly obvious that the list lacks punch both on the charge and against armour. I appreciate that a DC only list is a little limiting but until I buy/build/paint the rest of the units I intend to get, its all I have.

 

I've got a mini tournament (which the local gaming group has organised) in a couple of weeks that I'm going to take the DC list to so it needs a few tweaks.

 

I'm tempted with dropping one of the 10 man squads down to 6 and adding another TLLC Razorback and trying to squeeze either Lemartes (and split the DC with JP) or a foot slogging Reclusiarch in one of the Rhinos into the list.

[shatter]

Err... apart from the heavy on the tracked box, no wargear?

 

A severe lack of armour ignoring attacks and infantry melta.

 

Astorath can suck vs another BA. But that's the way it goes.

[Korloth Darkwolf]

Err... apart from the heavy on the tracked box, no wargear?

 

A severe lack of armour ignoring attacks and infantry melta.

 

Astorath can suck vs another BA. But that's the way it goes.

 

Not completely bare of wargear.

 

Every squad had a power weapon and one of the rhino squads had an infernus pistol.

 

I've been thinking of swapping one of the rhino squads to a razorback with TL Heavy Bolter. Dropping the 4 DC off the squad frees up enough points to have more wargear so I was thinking of adding an infernus pistol to every squad and adding an extra power weapon to the JP squad.

 

It would drop the number of men down to 31 + Astorath (losing 4 DC with bolters) but I'd gain 3 infernus pistols, 2 power weapons and a TL Heavy Bolter.

 

If I did the same with the last rhino I'd drop down to 27 DC but I could gain another TL Heavy Bolter and with a little juggling squeeze a Chaplain in.

 

Would the trade off between numbers and punch be worth it?

[shatter]

Yahh, do it and see how it works out for you... but getting more games in is pretty important before messing with your models too much. I'm a little concerned over the absence of powerfists too. 'May want to reduce your new extra PWs upgrades a little and get a couple of fists/thunderhammers. Getting tarpitted with your expensive squads vs a DN would suck. It also gives you the option to surround Lraiders and kill occupants via no-escape in assault.

 

Having some (more) longer range anti-armour might be required once your opponents get used to your rage moves, if they haven't already.

 

Anyhoo, best o' luck, bud.

[Anggul]

Eldar player here.

 

In all fairness to the Death Company, they did get some tremendously unlucky rolls, I think they'd have performed better if not for that, which is a shame for the first game in a while. Even so they did well considering the absence of the Orks as far as we got, not to mention the slightly unfair walls we had, which I don't particularly like using a lot of the time. Still, I don't think the game was intended to be a properly balanced one, and I look forward very much to playing with you in future!

[Korloth Darkwolf]

Eldar player here.

 

In all fairness to the Death Company, they did get some tremendously unlucky rolls, I think they'd have performed better if not for that, which is a shame for the first game in a while. Even so they did well considering the absence of the Orks as far as we got, not to mention the slightly unfair walls we had, which I don't particularly like using a lot of the time. Still, I don't think the game was intended to be a properly balanced one, and I look forward very much to playing with you in future!

 

I got a game in against the Orks last friday. I still lost (it was objectives!) but it was a close run thing. The Orks were down to one half strength Ard Boyz mob and a weaponless Trukk, against my DC dread. The Orks won by holding a single objective and I needed to table them to win.

 

The highlight for me was watching as a DC dread with Talons mulched 20 Boyz including Nob, mulched 20 Shoota Boyz including Nob, wounded a Deff Kopta, immobilised a Trukk, incinerated a handful of Ard Boyz and took out a wounded Thraka over the course of the game.

 

I'll be at the mini-tournament on the 18th December with the DC.

[Anggul]

Eldar player here.

 

In all fairness to the Death Company, they did get some tremendously unlucky rolls, I think they'd have performed better if not for that, which is a shame for the first game in a while. Even so they did well considering the absence of the Orks as far as we got, not to mention the slightly unfair walls we had, which I don't particularly like using a lot of the time. Still, I don't think the game was intended to be a properly balanced one, and I look forward very much to playing with you in future!

 

I got a game in against the Orks last friday. I still lost (it was objectives!) but it was a close run thing. The Orks were down to one half strength Ard Boyz mob and a weaponless Trukk, against my DC dread. The Orks won by holding a single objective and I needed to table them to win.

 

The highlight for me was watching as a DC dread with Talons mulched 20 Boyz including Nob, mulched 20 Shoota Boyz including Nob, wounded a Deff Kopta, immobilised a Trukk, incinerated a handful of Ard Boyz and took out a wounded Thraka over the course of the game.

 

I'll be at the mini-tournament on the 18th December with the DC.

 

Blimey! Well done that dreadnought!